Monday was a weird day for me. My dog had an appointment again at the neurologist, this time for her MRI. With everything that's been going on with her neck and her leg lately, it's just time to take next steps. Thank goodness the doctor is nice since he's the only game in town. We talked through everything and what tests they would do. Chest X-rays to make certain there are no issues there. A MRI of the head and neck to make sure there are no tumors and potentially capture any issues with her vertebrae. Lastly a spinal tap to make sure there was no infection in her spinal cord.

Leaving her somewhere is incredibly stressful for both her and me. Other than staying with my Mom, my dog doesn't spend any amount of time with people she doesn't know. In fact, she's pretty terrified of strangers. Every time I have to leave her at the vet, even though it's only for the day I know that she's sitting in a crate being scared. That's what stresses me out, that she's sitting along in a crate scared and worried that I'm not coming back for her.

I left her for the day and attempted to work for a few hours. Picking her up later was a mixture of empathy and humor. After anesthesia she's incredibly out of it. She struggles to keep her tongue in her mouth and wobbles around sort of in circles because she's "drunk". She gets so excited to see me but can't express it the way she usually does so it just comes out in a low constant whine. They shaved her little head and neck for the spinal tap too, so she looks quite ridiculous.

The spinal tap showed no infection and the MRI showed multiple bulging discs. It also showed a congenital fusion of two vertebrae which isn't really the issue. So next steps are surgery, planned for a couple of weeks from now. While I am moderately terrified of this supposedly routine surgery I know that they'll take great care of her. Mostly I just want her to be OK.

Having a pet is a funny thing sometimes. It's also an expensive thing. Everything is going to work out the way it should, but in the interim it's just a bit stressful.